Ziva's Secret Past
by Spamez
Summary: It's just a normal day at the office when a man comes into the NCIS Squad Room and asks for Agent Gibbs, Ziva immediatly recognises him, and after that, well, things get very emotionally chalenging for Ziva as one of her sadest secrets are revield.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Squad Room (9:36)

Tony and Ziva are playing Scrabble against each other on Facebook, Tony is just a few points ahead of Ziva.

"Meltdown! Seriously!" Tony yelled as Ziva scores 65 points for her 8 letter word.

"What's wrong with that?" She asks.

"You're ahead. I can't believe I'm getting my ass kicked by you in English Scrabble!" he yelled out as another agent and a man in a uniform stops next to Ziva's desk.

"Is Agent Gibbs here yet?" The agent asks Ziva.

"I don't… uh… I don't know where he is… something I can help you with?" she asks stumbling over her words.

"I need to talk with Agent Gibbs, it's urgent." The man says.

"I'll… uh… escort you up to the uh conference room." Ziva says as she gets up

"I'll call Gibbs." Tony says looking very confused. The other agent leaves as Ziva and the man head upstairs.

"I did not know you moved to DC." The man says

"Yes, I moved here in '05" She says refusing to look at him, thinking about what had happened nine years ago.

"I'm surprised I never saw you around here, I have been to NCIS once or twice." He says as they reach the conference room.

"Agent Gibbs will be here soon." Ziva says before leaving, still not looking the man in the eye.

Squad Room (09:56)

Ziva walks back toward her desk, listening to the rain falling and sees Gibbs coming out of the elevator with his morning coffee in his hand, Ziva sits down as Tony says to Gibbs,

"Morning boss, there's someone here to see you, he's in the conference room and says it's urgent." Gibbs looks up at the stairs and asks

"He have a name?"

"He didn't say." Tony replied as Gibbs heads upstairs.

20 Minutes Later

"Okay, Navy Lieutenant James Mathis thinks he's been followed and is worried for the safety of his wife and daughter. McGee, back-trace his cell phone, see if there's any numbers frequently around him, DiNozzo, check in to past enemies that could try to harm him, Ziva, check into his family." Gibbs says and starts walking away.

"Uh, Gibbs, can I talk to you for a second." Ziva stops him

"Can it wait?" Gibbs says, still walking away. Ziva sits down looking agitated. After a while Ziva gets something and leaves, minutes later Gibbs re-enters the squad room and says as he walks by "DiNozzo." Tony jumps up, gets his gear and follows Gibbs into the elevator.

"New lead?" Tony asks

"We're picking up the wife and daughter," Gibbs says as they exit the elevator. The drive to the Mathis' house is silent as usual, Tony stares at the wet trees in the side of the road, though the rain has stopped, the sky is still arrive, walk up to the door and ring the doorbell, a young, tall woman with dark brown hair and hazel eyes answers the door.

"Can I help you?" She asks with a strong Israeli accent.

"NCIS, are you Mrs Mathis?" Gibbs asks as both Tony and Gibbs hold up their badges for her to see.

"Yes" she replies.

"Do you know that your husband has been concerned about someone following him?" Gibbs asks.

"Yes he said he is going to NCIS today and that Nessa and I should stay here." She says.

"Well, we're gona need you and your daughter to come with us to NCIS." She takes another look at the badges and says,

"I will be right back." She walks up the stairs, Tony and Gibbs turn around facing away from the door before Tony asks.

"Do you think she knows more than he does?"

"Why do you always suspect the wife?"

"I don't know." Tony replies.

"Right. I don't know if she knows anything yet." Gibbs says as the woman come back down the stairs with a little girl, Tony and Gibbs turn around to face them and are stunned when they see the little girl looks exactly like Ziva.

Squad Room (11:37)

Ziva returns and sees Tony is not there.

"Where's Tony?" She asks McGee.

"He and Gibbs went to pick up the wife and daughter."

"WHAT!" Ziva yellsas she picks up her cell phone and calls Gibbs;and paces up and down as she waits for him to answer.

"Yeah, Gibbs."

Gibbs, where are you now?"

"At the main gate, why?"

"Shit, I had to talk to you before you picked them up" She says, still pacing, McGee looking confused.

"Well you can explain now, we're on our way up." He says and hangs up the phone, Ziva walks past McGee's desk on her way to the stairs before stopping, turning around and heading back to her desk.

"You okay?" McGee asks her still looking bewildered. "Ziva!" He yells, for she did not hear him the first time.

"What?" she asks.

"What the hell is going on?"

"Look in the little girl's file, that should explain everything." She says as Gibbs stops next to her.

"Come." Gibbs says to Ziva and heads back to the elevator. McGee looking stunned, does what Ziva said, Tony with his own suspicions looks in Ziva's file first.

Elevator

"You lied to me." Gibbs starts

"No I did not; you just would not listen to me." She defends herself.

"Well, explain." He says.

"Nessa, the little girl, she's my daughter, I had her when I was 18, when Eli found out he was furious and made me give her up for adoption. He was on a big MOSSAD mission that lasted for a little over three years and he was barely ever home, and since I had already moved out, I literally never saw him until one day out of nowhere he shows up at my apartment." Ziva slowly explains, tears in her eyes, her face overwhelmed with emotion, more than Gibbs had ever seen in her face before, Gibbs is also slightly stunned for he did not expect Nessa to be Ziva's daughter.

"Nessa was almost 17 months old when Eli found out, I never forgave him for what he made me do." She says, multiple tears running down her face, a still shocked Gibbs moves forward and hugs Ziva, after about half a minute she pulls away and says.

"Gibbs, I'm related to a victim, doesn't that mean I cannot be on the case?"

"No, we need you, just avoid them, if by tonight you feel like you can't handle it let me k now and I'll take you off the case." He says before switching on the elevator again.

Meanwhile

McGee read through Nessa's file and had reached the information about her birthparents. He freezes when he sees the name 'Ziva David' is listed as Nessa's birthmother. Tony had also given up on Ziva's file and went into Nessa's, immediately after seeing that she is adopted he scrolls down to the information about her birthparents, but in a way he had expected to see Ziva's name there. As Gibbs and Ziva exits the elevator Gibbs goes straight up the stairs and Ziva to her desk.

"Ziva, you're…" McGee starts

"Yes." She interrupts him; Tony looks at her with the kind of expression on his face a dog lover gets after watching their dog being shot. They all continue doing what they were doing before, only now all kinds of thoughts a racing through their minds. Tony looks up at his beloved co-worker, questions flooding his mind, 'what happened? Why did she give Nessa up? Why has she kept her secret all these years? Is she in contact with them? Does she know what Nessa is like or even how much she resembles Ziva?' he asks himself, McGee asking himself similar questions. Ziva however is thinking about that one night nine years ago that ruined her life, when her father unexpectedly showed up at her apartment, she swallows her tears when thinking about the events of the following weeks.

"What've we got?" Gibbs asks as he walks into the squad room, snapping everyone out of their daydreams.

"No past enemies that seem to have enough motive to try and do anything to the Lieutenant and or his family." Tony says before Ziva starts.

"Most of the Lieutenant's family is dead and he has not been in recent contact with those still alive. All of his wife, Adi Mathis' family are still in Israel, she has not been to Israel in three years and the last visit she received from family was over a year ago, I checked and none of them are currently in the States..." Gibbs looks at McGee, cutting Ziva off before she is completely finished.

"When I back-traced the cell phone, I could only find one consistent number, though it is not registered, so I looked at the time and date of each…"

"McGee." Gibbs interrupts before McGee could get technical.

"Right sorry, the point is, with Abby's help, I got a name. Uh, Amir Ruah, he's Israeli…"

"Oh shit." Ziva says under her breath, but Gibbs still heard.

"What?" Gibbs asks, completely cutting McGee short.

"He's Nessa's father. He's a psychopath, which is why I left him in the first place, but then he started stalking me, after a few weeks and a few death threats I managed to get him to leave me alone." Ziva says.

"Does he know about Nessa?" Gibbs asks concerned.

"If you're asking, did I tell him about her the answer is no." Ziva says.

"If he is here for her how far do you think he'll go?"

"Too far."

"Find 'em." Gibbs says before walking out of the squad room. McGee starts tracing the cell phone; Tony started looking for any property or vehicles belonging to Amir, while Ziva scanned his photo through customs trying to find out how long he has been in the States.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Break Room (13:03)

Ziva has gone to the break room to get a bottle of water, as she heads back to the squad room Lt. Mathis enters from the other end.

"Ziva." He calls out to her,

"Lieutenant." She replies.

"Do you know anything new yet?" he asks her.

"Uh… Agent Gibbs will update you soon, I have to go." She replies.

"Have you been taken off the case?" He asks, slightly confused about whether or not the rest of Gibbs' team knows what is going on.

"No."

"Oh, I thought NCIS has some kind of policy against it." He says.

"They do, but Agent Gibbs does not always go by all the agency rules, I can stay on the case as long as I don't give you any information before he does. I'm sorry I really have to go." She says and turns around to leave when he says,

"She remembers you."

"Excuse me." Ziva asks confused after turning around to face him again.

"Nessa, she remembers bits and pieces from the day she was taken away as well as something about a black horse." He says, just before Tony enters behind Ziva, he immediately stops, looking at both of them, Ziva's face starts to lose feeling and her eyes are burning.

"Excuse me." She says before turning around and leaving, her voice trembling with emotion, Tony could see she's heavily upset, he pauses for a few seconds, staring at the Lieutenant, before going after Ziva.

Ladies Room

Ziva is standing over the sink, tears streaming down her face, she opens the tap and soaks her face with water, as Tony comes in she stops took at hi when another couple of tears roll down her cheeks, as she starts soaks her face again Tony checks to see if anyone else is there, before locking the door. Ziva stands over the sink again; an endless flow of tears running down her face with the excess water, Tony walks over to her and asks.

"What happened?"

"Now or then?" She asks hanging her head forward.

"Well, both I guess."

"I met Amir at a friend of mine's birthday party not long after graduating from high school, he seemed nice at first, we became friends and soon after started dating, but then he started acting weird, he was very protective, he did not like me talking to any of my male friends, which was a big request since most of my friends were men. When I left him I had not known I'm pregnant yet, but after leaving him he started calling me and following me everywhere, it was creepy, but after threating him a few times he left me alone, that was the last time I saw him. Eli had been away on a highly classified mission even before I graduated and after moving out I never saw him, we all knew he would over react if he found out that I was pregnant so none of us told him, we were planning on telling him after he completed the mission and was thinking straight again, but that plan was kicked to the curb when he showed out at my apartment the one night, we had not even known he was in Tel Aviv, he completely freaked out and started shouting, before storming out, I got a call from him the next day, he told me that I will give Nessa up for adoption, that I have no choice, and, well, you can use your imagination to fill in the blanks." She stops, tears still running down her face, Tony steps closer and hugs her, while he is holding her she continues.

"And now Mathis has to tell me about her, like it's not hard enough already…" Tony stops her and says.

"It's okay you don't have to continue." He holds her a little tighter until she stops crying.

Squad Room (13:43)

McGee is trying everything to trace Amir's cell phone when Tony and Ziva return from the ladies room, they sit down, Ziva checks the BOLO that she put out on Amir and Tony calls a buddy of his at Baltimore PD. For some help. After a while Ziva sits back, most of the redness in her eyes has faded, she notices it has started raining again.

"Any luck?" Ziva asks.

"Nope." McGee replies.

"Wait I have an idea, give me the number." Ziva says as she gets up and puts on her jacket.

"Why?" McGee asks confused.

"NSA is doing an experiment on tracing a cell phone when it's off, remember." She says as she walks over to his desk.

"Oh yeah, here." He says handing her post-it with the number on it and she leaves.

"What is she talking about?" Tony asks.

"A classified NSA experiment." McGee says.

"Explain, but try to do it in English and not computer language." Tony says staring at McGee like a child who is about to hear a story.

"They want to see if they can't trace a phone that is off by sending it a series of codes to the phone that will force it to connect with the closest cell tower long enough for them to track it." McGee says.

"That doesn't sound too complicated, why hasn't anyone tried it sooner?" Tony asks.

"The problem isn't thinking of it, but successfully writing program that will send the code and of course writing a code that meets all the requirements." McGee says.

"But wait, if it's so classified then how do you and Ziva know about it?"

"Mutual friend at NSA is part of the project." McGee says before continuing trying to find Amir his way, when Gibbs comes walking in.

"Got anything? Where's Ziva?" He asks looking at the empty desk.

"Nothing yet, but Ziva might when she gets back, She's gone to NSA to try and track Amir's cell phone." McGee says hoping Gibbs does not ask why she has gone all the way to NSA to track him down.

"How long ago did she leave?" He asks.

"Few minutes." Tony says joining the conversation. "I called a buddy of mine at Baltimore PD they're all on the lookout for Amir and his truck, he'll let me know as soon as they have anything." Tony ads.

In the City (14:15)

Ziva stops at a traffic light on her way to NSA and notices a man looking exactly like Amir walking down the street, the traffic light goes green and she drives over the crossing before pulling over and getting out, she sees the man going into an alley in front of her and decides to follow him, rain pouring down on her. She is in the alley, but there is no one there, she thinks that she could have only imagined him when suddenly someone grabs her from behind and puts a cloth over her mouth and nose, she tries her best not to breathe and to free herself from his grip, but she is unsuccessful and soon everything goes black.

In a Room (15:06)

Ziva wakes up, her hands tied tightly behind her back with thick, rough rope, she's on a chair and can see a single window to her right, but it has wooden planks nailed over it, there is a door to her right and across the room in front of her Amir is leaning back against the wall.

"Wh… Where am I?" She asks as Amir starts walking toward her and slaps her across the face before saying in Hebrew,

"You bitch! How dare you! Why did you not tell me about her?" He yells.

"You were stalking me, do you really…" He slaps her again.

"You lying bitch! She's my daughter!" He shouts

"I would never make her suffer by letting her know you're her father." She says and Amir loses his temper and punches her under her left eye twice, he starts punching her in the gut until the chair falls over and Ziva falls off of it, Amir kicks it away and starts kicking her in her ribs, fracturing two of her right ribs.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Headquarters (17:01)

"How long does that NSA experiment take?" Tony asks after noticing how long Ziva has been gone.

"I don't know, but she should be back by now, it shouldn't take this long, or at least I think it should."

"How can you not know how long it takes?" Tony asks.

"I've never used the program before so I don't know how it works or how long it takes, but she could also have had trouble convincing him to help her." McGee says trying not to think what he is about to think.

"I'll call her." Tony says as Gibbs walks in, he does not say anything for he overheard the last part of their conversation.

"It's ringing… Nope, voicemail." Tony says looking at McGee, who immediately starts tracing her cell phone.

"She's on a street a few blocks away from NSA headquarters, she's not moving though." McGee says as Tony and Gibbs get ready to leave.

"Call me when she moves." Gibbs says before McGee could get up.

The Street

As they drive over the crossing they could see her car parked on the side of the road, they pull over and get out. Gibbs looks inside the car and on the street, but he doesn't see her.

"McGee, she's not here." Gibbs says when McGee answers the phone.

"She should be there, you're almost on top of her, do you see an alley, if you look at the building it's on you're right." McGee says as Gibbs and Tony go into the alley. Gibbs hangs up when he sees Ziva's phone on the floor near a dumpster, he walks toward it, Tony following closely behind, they see her car keys right next to the dumpster and a piece torn cloth near it.

"She's gone, process the scene and let me know when you're done." Gibbs says as he dials McGee's number and walks away.

"Put out a BOLO on Ziva and Amir Ruah ASAP." Gibbs says and immediately hanging up again, he gets in his car and drives off.

Headquarters (17:24)

Gibbs comes out of the elevator, he goes into Abby's lab and is confused when he sees that she is dancing around like her usual perky self.

"Abbs?" He asks as she jumps around to face him.

"Brain Matter's new CD, it's awesome, you should've seen the concert it was hilarious, how's the case going?" She says as she lowers the volume. Gibbs frowns and says.

"It's going, I guess, we just really gota find Ziva before it's too late. You alright Abbs?" Gibbs says as Abby's smile fades away.

"What do you mean find Ziva before it's too late?" Abby asks confused.

"You don't know? Abby Ziva's been up ducted." Gibbs says as his phone starts ringing.

"Yeah Gibbs." He answers.

"Hey boss I'm done here." Tony says over the phone.

"Okay I'm on my way." Gibbs says as he starts dialling McGee's number.

"Uh, Abbs help McGee figure out a way to track this guy down, I'll bring you an extra Caff-Pow next time." Gibbs says as he walks out leaving Abby with a stunned expression.

"McGee what's that guy's address again?" Gibbs asks McGee as he steps into the elevator.

Amir's Apartment (18:07)

Tony and Gibbs arrive at the apartment, there is no one home, and as usual they clear the premises, guns drawn, from room to room. Tony enters the last room and freezes in his steps.

"Boss." He calls. Gibbs comes in, his gun still drawn, both men stare with great concern at the walls covered in pictures of Ziva, Nessa, Lt. Mathis and Mrs Mathis. The pictures, all of the same stalking nature. Tony starts processing the room while Gibbs looks through the rest of the apartment for anything that could be useful.

The Room

Amir bursts through the door, he grabs Ziva by her hair and yanks to her knees, she cries out in agony as pain tears through her chest. Each gasp of breath cause another blinding bolt of pain to explode out of her brutalised ribs.

"How much do they know?" He asks in Hebrew.

"I don't know." She replies, trying to toughen her voice.

"What did they have when you left?" He shouts, his hand still clamped around her hair.

"They did not know where you were, that was what I had to find out." Ziva says trying to get him to let go of her hair, pain bursting out of her ribs, firing through her body.

"What do they know?" He shouts again.

"I don't know!" She shouts back.

He shoves her to the ground and leaves slamming the door behind him. A she's lying there she tries to think of a way to escape, but she can hardly breath, not to mention focus. Upstairs Amir prepares to leave he locks the doors, get in his truck and leave. Ziva can hear the engine roaring and fade away as he leaves. As he drives back to the city he switches his cell phone on again to check for messages.

Squad Room (18:24)

Gibbs comes walking into the Squad Room as McGee calls him."

"Boss! Amir just switched on his cell phone, he's in the city, and he's moving pretty fast, I think he might be in a car. No! No! Dam it! I lost him, he must've switched his phone off again." McGee says disappointedly.

"Got anything else?" Gibbs asks.

"Nope." McGee says.

Abby's Lab.

Tony walks in with the evidence they've collected and sees Abby sulking.

"Abbs? Tony asks.

"Oh… Hey Tony, what's that?" She asks as she gets up.

"The evidence from the alley and the apartment, some of Ziva's things and then the photos Amir took as well as his laptop, and some of his recent mail." He says and puts the evidence box on the silver table.

"You okay?" He asks her and puts his hand on her shoulder.

"It's just Ziva has a daughter that no one knew about and now Ziva's been kidnapped, again! Someone should put a tracking device in her arm or something." Abby says.

"Well, the girl was a surprise to all of us…" Tony starts, but Abby interrupts.

"And now we need to find Ziva so shoo!." She says and chases Tony out. Abby starts processing the evidence, starting with Ziva's things, she dusts the outside of the phone as well as the keys for prints and dusts the photos for Amir's prints to compare it. She starts scanning the photos into the computer and works through it before attempting to get into his laptop to access his email and then she goes through his mail.

Squad Room (00:47)

Tony and his buddy at Baltimore PD have been following their own leads, but most hit a dead end. Gibbs has been in M-Tac a couple of times talking to Director David and with the FBI, but none of them had any new information. When he returns from M-Tac Abby is waiting for him at his desk.

"Hey Gibbs." She says as he stops in front of her.

"Got something for me Abbs?" He asks.

"Yeah, it's defiantly Amir that kidnapped her, his prints are on Ziva's phone and those photos go back like six months, I figured that out by… you know what not important. The emails are where it gets interesting, he has two email accounts, one under his own name with emails mainly from like lawyers about his legal rights to Nessa and stuff like that, the rest was from the social worker that handled the adoption, those emails are in Hebrew so it took me a while to translate it, but he wanted to know about Nessa and where she is and stuff. The other account however is for a Patrick O'Brian, but those emails are mostly bank statements and stuff like that, I emailed the details to McGee." She says hastily.

"What about the mail?" Gibbs asks her.

"It's just bill for the apartment and the truck etc. nothing useful." She says; Gibbs kisses her on the cheek before she heads back to her lab.

"McGee, check if Patrick O'Brian owns any property in DC." Gibbs says to him. He looks over to Tony and sees that he's still on the phone with his buddy from Baltimore PD.

"The bank accounts are the only thing registered to Patrick O'Brian; the others all have driver's licences." McGee says to Gibbs about two hours later.

"Boss, Amir Ruah got caught by a traffic camera near Rock Creek Park last night at 17:18; he was heading toward the city." Tony says after hanging up the phone.

"Three hours for that?" Gibbs asks.

"Well that's all we could find, this guy's not exactly driving through the city with a red flag on his car, he's like a ghost." Tony says.

"And Ziva's gonna be one if we don't find her soon." Gibbs ads.

"Well we've got a bolo on him, and all units in DC are on the lookout, someone's gonna see him, unless he really is invisible." Tony says.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The Room (05:57)

Ziva has been trying all night to stretch the harsh rope, holding her hands, as far as she could, ripping the skin off of her wrists in the process, she could finally reach her jacket pocket, 'he did not do a very thorough job of disarming me' she thinks, as she grabs the knife in her right jacket pocket. She opens the knife, but the blade accidentally penetrates her left arm. Trying to ignore the pain, she removes the blade from her flesh and continues to cut the rope. She eventually gets the knife into a position that will free her, then while slicing the thick, harsh rope, the knife slips and cuts down the side of her hand. She sits up slowly to prevent more pain from firing out of her ribs, she looks at the cut on her hand and the stab wound on her lower left arm. She gets up and heads to the door to escape, she stops to pick the lock, but she does not have anything to pick the lock with, she tries to break the lock by pushing the blade of the knife in between the door and the door frame. She gets agitated when she cannot find the right position. After four minutes she manages to break the lock, she silently makes her way through what appears to be a cottage.

Squad Room (06:12)

"Boss! Ruah's cell phone is on again, he is heading into Rock Creek Park!" McGee says as they all jump up and grabs their gear as McGee quickly sends the search details to his PDA before following Gibbs and Tony into the elevator.

The Cottage

Ziva is outside; she is surrounded by trees and has no idea where she is or where she is going. Amir pulls up and sees her heading toward the woods, she tries to outrun him, but he quickly catches her, he grabs her with his one hand tightly around her waist, and his other hand holding onto her hair, she screams and tries to break free, but the anguishing pain bursting out of her ribs prevent her. Amir throw her into the room, she tries to break her fall, but fails and hits her head against the wall before falling on her right shoulder. Amir closes the door and nails wooden plank across it to keep her inside.

The Car

"He stopped at a structure, just keep going straight." McGee says to Gibbs as he speeds up. They reach the cottage in no time, they all run in, guns drawn, Amir makes a run for it, Tony shoots him twice, once in the shoulder and once in the arm, though Amir keeps running until he disappears into the woods.

"Leave him." Gibbs says pointing to the room with the planks nailed over the door. Gibbs starts kicking at the door, it splits in two, they run in and see Ziva unconscious on the floor against the wall,

"Call an ambulance." Gibbs yells as McGee dials 911. Gibbs kneels beside Ziva as she begins to wake up again, though she immediately fades away again. The ambulance arrives and heads into the room with the gurney, they put her in the ambulance as she begins to surface again, but like before she quickly falls back into unconsciousness again.

Hospital (07:26)

"She has three cracked ribs, torn ligaments in her right shoulder and a concussion, but her other injuries are minor. We would like to keep her overnight for observation, but she should be waking up soon if you want to see her." The doctor says and leads them to Ziva's room. When they reach the room Abby immediately runs over to the bed to hug Ziva, but barely touches her, too afraid she might break her.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay? How are you feeling?" Abby asks.

"Not bad, they gave me Morphine. Ziva says with a hoarse still looking half asleep. Gibbs touches Abby's arm and she steps back, Gibbs draws the curtain between them to talk to Ziva alone.

"What did he want with you?" Gibbs asks after everyone leaves.

"He was pissed at me for not telling him about Nessa." She says.

"Did he wana kill you?" Gibbs asks.

"It seemed that way after a while, but he wants to kidnap Nessa, but he could not get to her, I think he wanted to try and use me to get her before killing me." She says, Gibbs gets a strange look on his face and leaves the room saying.

"Abby can I talk to you alone for a second." As Gibbs leaves the room Tony and McGee enter, they sit beside Ziva and start talking with her.

Headquarters (10:47)

Gibbs walks by the conference room on his way back to the squad room when Lt. Mathis comes out, on his way to the vending machines.

"Agent Gibbs." He calls, Gibbs faces him.

"Lieutenant." Gibbs says waiting for him to start talking.

"Are there any new developments in the case?"

"Yes, we're close to catching him." Gibbs says.

"How close? I'm just asking, because you didn't say much last night." The Lt. asks, Gibbs can tell that he is concerned.

"We just had a setback, but it's taken care of now, we're very close, he's wounded and doesn't have medical training so he should be going to a hospital soon." Gibbs says.

"You know who it is?" The Lt. asks.

"Yes…" Gibbs starts to say, but is interrupted by his cell phone.

"Yeah, Gibbs" He says.

"The cops just saw Amir driving in the city, their gonna pull him over now and take him back to the station." Tony says over the phone.

"Okay, I'll be right there." Gibbs says as he turns around and leaves.

"Like I said, we're close." Gibbs says to the Lt. as he walks away.

Squad Room

"They were on their way back to the station when they saw him, but when they tried to pull him over he sped off, their chasing him now, the chopper's also in the air." Tony says to Gibbs. Tony sits forward waiting for his phone to ring, while McGee is typing vigorously. 45 minutes later Tony jumps as the phone suddenly rings, he answers and at first looks excited, but then extremely disappointed, he hangs up and says.

"They lost him, they had a bunch of units and a chopper, but this guy knows the city better than we thought." Tony says to Gibbs, who picks up his phone and calls Abby.

"Abbs, where are you?"

"Still at the hospital, why?" She asks over the phone.

"Don't leave." Gibbs says.

Hospital (14:38)

"So then as Sister Rosita lunges forward to bowl, the ball wouldn't go anywhere, but then we had to help her get her fingers un-super glued, which took a while, but it was a great laugh though." Abby tells Ziva who tries her best not to laugh to hard.

"I'm sorry, I'll try not to make you laugh." Abby says, feeling bad.

"It's fine, just don't be offended if my laugh looks and sounds fake." Ziva says smiling.

"No, but still, it must hurt." Abby says.

"Not as much as it did this morning, but come on tell me what happened next." Ziva says.

"That was the only really funny part, but the last Brain Matter concert I went to was funny as hell though." She says.

"Tell me everything." Ziva says excitedly, Abby frowns.

"Well most of it was the way it usually is, nothing weird, but as the time goes by you notice that they're getting drunk, they were like making minor mistakes and stuff, but then after the break the drummer and lead guitarist came out naked. The rest of the band seemed just as surprised as us, then they completed the song, but for the next one they at least had shorts on, but that was funny, seeing that, the guitarist does have really cute ass." Abby says, Ziva starts laughing, her laugh once again sounds fake.

"Are you okay? You're very giggly." Abby says.

"Morphine, I'm high as a… uh… whatever." Ziva says.

"High as a kite." Abby says laughing, and continues to tell Ziva all kinds of strange stories.

Hospital (23:39)

Ziva is asleep when Amir, dressed as nurse, sneaks into the room. He walks over to the bed and looks at Ziva, he then grabs her by her throat and tries to strangle her, she wakes up and tries to get him off of her, but he is too heavy, suddenly Amir feels a sting followed by a burn in his neck, he lets go of Ziva and swings his hand backward over his shoulder slapping Abby across her face, she lunges forward and grabs Amir's balls, he tries to fight her off, but falls backwards into unconsciousness. Abby checks if Ziva is okay before calling Gibbs, though Ziva is extremely confused by what had just happened, she looks at Amir laying on the floor before looking up at Abby.

"What the hell just happened?" She asks after Abby hangs up.

"Gibbs kinda suspected Amir was gonna come after you again so he told me to stay here tonight, he gave me a syringe full of anaesthetic in case Amir did come." Abby explains.

"But how did he not see you?" Ziva asks looking at the empty syringe on the floor.

"I was sleeping in the corner." Abby says pointing to the chair in the dark corner behind her.

20 Minutes later

Tony and McGee had cuffed Amir and is dragging the unconscious man down to the car, Gibbs however stayed to see if Abby and Ziva are alright. As Gibbs approaches the room the doctor leaves, then stops him.3

"You could have warned me that you were going to use her as bait." The doctor says.

"We weren't sure that the guy would even show up here, Abby was just here in-case he did." Gibbs replies as the doctor shakes his head and walks away; Gibbs enters the room and looks at Abby and Ziva.

"How did you know?" Ziva asks.

"I didn't really." Gibbs answers looking at the bruise on Ziva's neck and Abby's burst lip.

"And the syringe?" Ziva asks.

"Back-up, my gut wasn't very clear." Gibbs says, Ziva frowns, thinking 'he definiataly knows more than he's telling'.

"But what I actually want to know is if you two are alright." Gibbs asks, searching for an answer from both of them.

"We're fine Gibbs." Abby says, Ziva just give him confirming look.

"Ziva?" Gibbs asks pretending he that he did not see her confirmation glance.

"I'm fine." She says, Gibbs flashes her a look of disbelieve.

"Really, I'm fine." She says, trying to convince both Gibbs and herself. Gibbs looks over at Abby, who then realizes Gibbs wants to talk to Ziva alone and leaves the room.

"How are you really?" Gibbs asks as he sits down, after closing the door behind Abby.

"I'm fine." Ziva says trying to hide the emotion, trying creep into view.

"Ziva?" Gibbs says, trying to show her that he doesn't believe her.

"I don't know? I don't know how I feel; I'm just so confused I don't know how to feel." She says, as all the emotion floods her face. Gibbs looks at her waiting for her to figure out how she feels.

"If you need to talk to talk I'm here." Gibbs says.

"I need something to talk about before I need someone to talk to." She says as McGee knocks on the door.

"Uh, boss, should we go drop him off and come back or should we wait for you." McGee asks, Gibbs looks over his shoulder at Ziva before answering.

"Stay with her, I'll go with Tony." Gibbs says in a whisper before leaving. McGee sits down and looks at Ziva.

"What's going on?" She asks, confused.

"What do you mean?" McGee asks.

"It seems as if the protection detail is going on." She says.

"No, I think he just wants to make sure you're okay." McGee says, trying to hide the concern in his face.

"Oh." She says.

"I hate this feeling, this guilt, this uncertainty, I hate it." Ziva says after about 10 minutes of complete silence.

"I wish I could just go back to before Eli knew about Nessa, then maybe none of this would have happened and even if it did I wouldn't feel this way, because I would have more control over what happens to Nessa." Ziva continues.

"Uh… I wish I knew what to say, but, I don't really have a clue." McGee says trying to buy himself some time to think.

"You don't have to say anything." Ziva says, as it starts to rain again, she looks over to the window then back at McGee and smiles.

"I'm sorry; I don't mean to drag you into my personal issues." She says.

"Its fine, I'll listen if you need someone to talk to, I think that might just be why I'm here, but you do have some control over what happens to Nessa, Gibbs would've let you decide if it was necessary, I'm sure of it." McGee says trying to comfort her, she smiles.

"I love the rain, it's so relaxing, cleansing, it's amazing." Ziva says to McGee after yet another silence.

"Yeah, I used to sneak out to go run in the rain when I was a child, my mother was always furious when she caught me, but there were times I got away with it though, I also loved playing in the snow." McGee says.

"We went to Switzerland for Hanukah once, that was my favourite holiday." Ziva says with a smile on her face as she thinks of that holiday.

"Sounds fun, I've always wanted to go to Switzerland." McGee answers.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Interrogation Room (08:32)

Gibbs enters the room and sits down, slamming a case file on the table.

"So, how'd you find out." Gibbs asks.

"Find out about what?" Amir asks.

"Not what, who, Nessa, how'd you find out about her?" Gibbs asks.

"It took me years, it was not easy."

"You're still not answering my question." Gibbs says.

"Look, I just want to know my daughter, I asked the social worker and tried negotiating with her, but she refuses, yet my lawyer says that I have the right to meet her." Amir answers.

"Yeah, well, your lawyer doesn't know the whole story, 'cause then he'd know that you actually don't have the right to see her." Gibbs says.

"What are you talking about? She is my daughter, of course I have the right to see her." Amir says angrily.

"You were legally denied to see that child when she was born, because of suspected mental instability." Gibbs says.

"What? No, what is she talking about?" Amir asks agitatedly.

"Her?" Gibbs asks, already knowing who Amir is talking about.

"Ziva. How could she do this? And what mental instability?"

"Didn't you stalk her after she left you?" Gibbs asks.

"I was trying to get back together with her and she refused to talk to me, so I figured then I will make her talk to me, but that did not work either, so I left her alone." Amir says.

"And then you started following her again when she was in Tel Aviv a few years ago, what did you follow her to the States and found Nessa, because not long after she came back to DC you came here as well."

"I never wanted to hurt Ziva."

"But you up duct her and beat the crap out of her." Gibbs yells, fury flooding his eyes.

"She gave me no choice, I would not have hurt her if she had just helped me." Amir yells.

"Helped you with what? To kidnap her own daughter?" Gibbs shouts, by now he is standing over the table.

"I just wanted to meet her!"

"I don't care what you wanted to do, you're still under arrest," Gibbs picking up the file and heading for the door.

"Under arrest for what?" Amir yells.

"Stalking, the attempt to kidnap a child and for kidnapping a Federal Agent." Gibbs says and leaves.

"That's it?" Tony asks as he comes out of observation.

"Yep, we've got him on kidnapping, why waste more time?" Gibbs says.

"Okay, uh, Lt. Mathis was looking for you earlier." Tony says, before he looks back into the observation room.

Conference Room (09:11)

"Lieutenant." Gibbs says leaning in through the door, the Lieutenant gets up and follows Gibbs to the hall.

"Agent Gibbs."

"We have him in custody" Gibbs says.

"That's great. I was just wondering last night you said he's wounded, now you managed to wound him, but not catch him?" Lt. Mathis asks confused.

"Like I said last night we had a setback, for the time being you and your family were save, so our priority was to find my Agent." Gibbs says.

"What? He kidnapped one of your Agents?"

"Yeah, Ziva." Gibbs says.

"Is she alright?"

"She's fine, she was discharged this morning." Gibbs says.

"Oh, that's good. So you've got the guy, it's all over?"

"Yes, you and your family can go home."

"If you don't mind I'd just like to have a word with Ziva."

"I'm afraid that's not gonna happen. She got kidnapped to save Nessa, and normally I would say go ahead, but not this time, this is personal." Gibbs says.

"So you're saying it's a bad idea."

"Yes." Gibbs says before walking away.

Squad Room

Everyone, including Ziva, are sitting at their desks. She has a sling around her right arm and is barely moving anything other than her left hand across the keyboard. Gibbs stops at her desk.

"You're not suppose to be here, go home, the case is finished." He says to her with a low voice.

"I don't have anything else do to." She says.

"Well you don't have anything else do here either, so if you're gonna sit here and do nothing, why can't you do it at home?" Gibbs asks.

"Fine." She says and gets up to leave.

On the ground floor Ziva sees as the Lieutenant, his wife and Nessa head into the parking lot. She looks at Nessa, a beautiful, happy, energetic little girl, running around the cars, laughing, while the Lieutenant chases her. Ziva has not seen any photos or anything of Nessa since the day she was taken away, Ziva could still remember the cry ripping through her, she remembers the urge to run to her crying daughter, but Eli held her back, she remembers the last time she got to hold her baby girl, her warm little arms gripping tightly around her neck as they always did when she hugged someone, she remembers Nessa's face, soaked with tears, as they put her in the car. A single tear slips out and slides down Ziva's face as she scans through these memories; she tries her best to prevent any more from slipping out. She can no longer see Nessa running around, but can only hear laughing. It is heartbreaking to have been able to see her daughter, but not speak to her, to hear her laughter, but not to share it, and worst of all knowing that she never will, that she can never again come home and be greeted by this beautiful, happy little girl. 'If I could change what had happened that night, I'd do it in a heartbeat.' Ziva thinks to herself as she gets in her car and heads home.


End file.
